


Day 17: "Stay with me."

by Aelaer



Series: Whumptober 2019 [17]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Bad Things Happen Bingo, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Friendships, Gen, Hurt Stephen Strange, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Rescue, Rework of canon scene, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 02:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21190181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aelaer/pseuds/Aelaer
Summary: It made sense that Squidward wasn't alone on the rather large, donut-shaped ship. That didn't mean Tony had to like that fact.He was attempting to be somewhat stealthy so he could get the jump on the telekinetic alien for some sort of advantage, and most of his weapons caused explosions which made his whole going rather slow. Instead of blasting aliens to smithereens he was forced to creep up on them and create a sword from his nanites to gut them or slit their throats. It was rather disgusting business, so up close, and he really would have rather avoided all of it.But he already had a disadvantage against Squidward and he doubted any of these guys played fair, either. Besides, he had a somewhat annoying wizard and an Infinity Stone to find.





	Day 17: "Stay with me."

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is happening concurrently with the events in [14: Tear-Stained](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21143429), but it’s not required to read that to understand this story. The premise is that during Infinity War, Ebony Maw is not the only alien on the donut ship, so it takes some time to find him and Strange, which changes the situation dramatically. Inspired by amethyst-noir‘s two stories that did something of the same– likely wouldn’t have thought of doing my own version with this one and #14, otherwise.
> 
> Also, this fills the trope “Raspy Breathing” for badthingshappenbingo.
> 
> Note the tags.

It made sense that Squidward wasn't alone on the rather large, donut-shaped ship. That didn't mean Tony had to like that fact.

He was attempting to be somewhat stealthy so he could get the jump on the telekinetic alien for some sort of advantage, and most of his weapons caused explosions which made his whole going rather slow. Instead of blasting aliens to smithereens he was forced to creep up on them and create a sword from his nanites to gut them or slit their throats. It was rather disgusting business, so up close, and he really would have rather avoided all of it.

But he already had a disadvantage against Squidward and he doubted any of these guys played fair, either. Besides, he had a somewhat annoying wizard and an Infinity Stone to find.

While he had yet to come across either Squidward or Strange, Tony was making decent progress, all things considered, as he made his way through the winding corridors. Every corpse he created he spent another minute hiding in closets and storage areas to keep his stealthy advantage, which was really not how he usually worked. He didn't particularly like it, either; it took entirely too long to hide the bodies and get around.

After killing another alien, he quickly scanned the immediate area for more heat signatures, thankful that he didn't have to rely on FRIDAY for the function. Nothing in the immediate area. Tony did another scan of the surrounding structure and found the nearest storage closet for the newest body.

He opened the door and tossed the corpse to the side of the room, but as he was about to leave, movement in the corner caused him to freeze. Tony narrowed his eyes; he hadn't seen so much as the heat signature of a rat (or its space equivalent) in here. He created his blade once more and slowly approached the spot where the movement came from.

There. Something was moving in the trunk, but he was still not getting any sort of heat signature.

The chest was locked with some sort of alien mechanism, but a ten second inspection revealed the weak point in the lock. He tapped his arm to trigger the laser, which burned through the metal easily until the lock was disabled.

Tony instinctively stepped back and charged up his gauntlet's repulsors as the chest burst open and a flash of red flew out.

_Oh._ It was Strange's cape.

The cape turned about in agitation until it was facing him, and then it stilled. Tony stared; it had nothing resembling facial features, but he couldn't help but feel that he was being inspected, anyway. He vaguely remembered the wizard saying something about the cape's sentience before the magical presentation on the Infinity Stones started, but still.

"So, uh," he started. "I guess the aliens put you in here."

The cape's collar bent and lifted in something resembling a nod, and this was _really fucking weird. _Not that he wasn't used to unusual things happening in his life, but this was something else.

"Right," he said slowly. "Well, you're a really loyal piece of outerwear. Do you know where Strange is?"

The cape darted to the open door in reply, and that answered that.

Tony closed the door behind him and followed the cape through the corridors, turning on his heat monitor as he did because the cape was moving much faster than he was before and he'd have to rely on that to alert him to any remaining aliens.

A couple minutes later he spotted a large heat signature around the corner. Tony grimaced and lifted himself upward to try and grab the cape before it could dart around the corner, but he was still trying to be as silent as possible and wasn't quite fast enough in his so-called 'stealth mode'.

It turned out that the cape didn't need any warning. He rounded the corner to find the cape had wrapped itself around the head of the alien and was trying to strangle him.

_Wow._ He blinked himself out of his momentary stupor and quickly put the alien out of its misery. Before he could even think about moving its body, the cape unravelled from its head and neck and was already darting down the corridor.

"Cape!" Tony hissed at it, then sighed and turned on his boot's repulsors to fly after it. And he was doing _so well_ with the stealth thing, too.

Within five minutes, the cape had successfully strangled two more aliens as Tony stabbed them to death in some attempt to remain partially stealthy, and he wished he had found the cape sooner because this was a hundred times more effective than before.

"You're brutal. Efficient, but brutal," he told it after the third alien went down.

The next corner led to a very large room that had a heat signature far above, on an overlook of some sort. "Hold up," he said, successfully grabbing the cape this time before it could dart off. "There's one above to our right in the next room. Smaller than the others, but probably a lookout. We can't have it alerting Squidward. Try to stick to the shadows on the walls and go straight up until you find it; I'll be a few seconds behind you."

The cape seemed to understand his words because it moved without hesitation, and Tony started to quietly fly after it as it darted into the large room and immediately went upwards into the shadows. It was rather bright, but hopefully it would be fast enough before the lookout could alert anyone. He gave it five seconds before darting through the door and alongside the wall, heading toward the lookout.

He then made out the sounds of conversation. "...on your side! I'm here to save the wizard."

Oh, Jesus _fucking_ Christ.

Tony ascended to find Peter Parker's back facing him. His hands were up in a consoling sort of manner as he talked to the cape.

The cape straightened as Tony arrived, and Peter looked over his shoulder. He blanched, then quickly said, "Mr Stark, I can explain—"

Tony landed and got into Peter's personal space, pointing a finger at him. "No, no, _you_ don't get to explain—"

"—I just thought that, well, I was already up so high—"

"—I can't believe you—"

"—and it was just such a long way down—"

"—I don't want to hear it—"

"—and I thought of you and all—"

"—and now I have to hear it, I _just_ said—"

"—and this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way, so if anything, it's kinda your fault that I'm here."

Tony couldn't believe he just said that; even the cape looked shocked, and that was still weird. "_What_ did you just say?"

"I take that back," Peter quickly said. "And now I'm here in space!" he rushed out.

"Yeah, right where I don't want you to be," he hissed. "This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. It's a one-way ticket. You hear me?" He exhaled in irritation. "Don't pretend like you thought this through. You could not have possibly thought this through."

"I did think this through," the teenager insisted.

For the love of— "You could not have _possibly_ thought this through," Tony repeated.

Peter retorted, "I did! It's just that— that you can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man when there's no neighborhood."

Tony stared at him blankly.

The kid shook his head. "That made more sense in my head, but you know what I'm trying to say."

He let out a long, low exhale and closed his eyes. In the end, it really didn't matter; it's not as if he could send the kid back now. _God damn it._ "Fine. If you want to be useful, then think of some ways we can save the wizard. I think the cape knows where he is, but Squidward's probably with him too and we have to get rid of him."

Peter nodded quickly and entirely too eagerly, and Tony shakily inhaled once more before looking at the cape. "Lead on, cape."

The kid swung on his webs rather well to keep up with their fast pace, though the next two aliens they ran across Tony took care of himself, with the cape's ever useful assistance. Peter's wide-eyed stare that reflected on his mask at the fabric's brutal effectiveness was somewhat amusing, though he quickly shushed him when he tried to talk at it.

After those two, they didn't come across anyone else, and Tony saw no signs of any heat signatures. He was pretty sure they had gone through most of the ship at this point, so hopefully Squidward was the last alien still around.

They continued on in silence for about five minutes before Tony heard the screams that stopped them all in their tracks. They were hoarse, choked off sobs that sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. From the corner of his eye he saw Peter's mask reflect a wide-eyed look, and beyond the kid he noticed the cape stiffen in— if it were a person, he would say it was horror.

"Kid," Tony started slowly, lowly, "I don't know what the wizard's been put through, but it might be very bad. You don't need to come with me if—"

"No," Peter immediately interrupted, then swallowed. "I'm here to help rescue the wizard, Mr Stark. And he— he needs help."

He nodded slowly at Peter's words and spent no further time arguing; enough time had been wasted dealing with the crew and looking for Strange in the first place.

They continued down the hallway, their path punctured by the occasional scream or sob. It only took about a minute to get to their final destination, but it was one of the longest minutes of Tony's life.

They came to what appeared to be a balcony or overlook to another part of the ship; he squinted against the bright light streaming directly down into it, and realized that the overlook created a square around some sort of deep enclosure. He looked at Peter and put a finger to his lips, then crept closer to the rail. Another broken scream came from directly below as Tony approached, and he grimaced.

They had found Strange. And lo and behold, there was Squidward.

His frown deepened as he got a full look at the situation. Strange was floating vertically in the air surrounded by some sort of monster-sized needles. Squidward was way beyond the borders of the wizard's personal bubble, both creepy grey hands on his shoulders and mouth against his ear whispering God knows what. And then the alien lifted his hand and twisted it, and Strange let out another strangled cry. Tony squinted down, trying to see where the needles were hitting his body, and frowned when he saw that at this time, the only ones that seemed to be in him were all in his hands.

That was a terrifying thought. Tony considered himself fortunate that it was his chest and not his hands that had been ruined by shrapnel all those years ago. But now was not a time for his mind to wander.

He stepped back away from the overlook, pulling a white-faced Peter along with him. The cape followed, though it seemed reluctant. "Right," Tony muttered when he felt they were far enough. "Despite Squidward being a lanky bastard, he hits a hard punch. Telekinesis and all. If we have any hope of getting the wizard out of that, we have to take him down."

Peter blinked rapidly a couple times and stared at him as if he didn't quite hear everything as he said it, but his brain quickly caught up. "Oh, uh, I have an idea, actually. You told me to think of something, and I have a couple, but if he's as powerful as you say he is, then we should probably use my first idea, but I'm not sure if it'll work—"

"Just say it," Tony interrupted. "What's your best idea?"

"Well," the kid started, looking around them. "It'll only work if we can get uh, Squidward away from the wizard, and if the ceiling here is the outer edge of the ship."

Tony frowned and allowed the nanites to form his helmet before he did a quick scan. "It is. Why is that important?"

The kid then honest-to-God asked, "Have you ever seen this really old movie _Aliens_?"

* * *

He was on alien distraction and hole maintenance duty. The kid and the cape were on catching the wizard duty. "I don't know if he's in a state to catch himself," he reminded them. (_Them? When did the cape become part of them?_)

Peter was all business and he sent him and the cape to the other side of the overlook. Once he was in position, he purposely waited for a moment of silence from within the pit below before powering up the repulsor rays in his gauntlets.

That got Squidward's attention. He looked upward sharply and scowled. Strange, however, didn't seem to react at all, which was a wee bit concerning.

It was a bit of a distance to shout at each other and the alien didn't even try; he left his victim and began to float upward, bringing some of the needles with him.

While it was a shame that he didn't have a chance for quippy dialogue, Tony was more than happy to take his shot the moment Squidward was several feet away from the wizard. He used his shoulder rocket to blast a hole in the ceiling.

_Goodbye, Squidward._

In his peripheral vision, he saw a blur of Strange's robes suddenly halt midair and trusted that either the kid or the cape had him, and spent as short a time as possible into sending a stream of strong, adhesive-like nanites at the hole in the ship until it was fully sealed shut.

By the time he finished that, it looked like the cape had caught the wizard and was gently lowering him down onto the floor of the overlook. He twitched a bit in its hold, but otherwise wasn't moving that much, and that wasn't good.

Tony hurried over to the man and knelt beside him; he could feel Peter hovering nearby. He quickly scanned him for injury: his face had some rather nasty bruises, but nothing that broke skin. It appeared his hands were the worst of it. "Hey, Strange. C'mon Strange, wake up."

Strange groaned softly and his eyes half-fluttered open, but his hand twitched and he cried softly while his eyes fluttered shut.

_Shit._ "No, no, I'm sorry, you can't sleep yet. Stay with me, Strange." _Fuck, what was his first name? Oh, right._ "Come on, Stephen. Stay with me." As the man battled for consciousness, Tony turned to look at Peter. "All the aliens on the ship should be dead. Try to find some water here; even aliens probably have to hydrate. If by some horrid circumstances there _is_ something else still alive here, hide and then come right back here. _Don't_ try to handle it on your own; I can't deal with two injured people."

Peter nodded shakily and took off to do as ordered, and Tony turned back to the wizard to try and rouse him back to consciousness.

About half a minute later, Strange's eyes fluttered open again and this time he seemed a bit more alert. He winced, then finally focused on his face. "Stark?" His voice was hoarse, his breath raspy.

He couldn't help but keep his voice low. "That's me."

"... what are you doing here?"

He sounded bewildered more than anything, and Tony had no idea what to think of that. So he swallowed and fell to his time-honed skill of casual ribbing, though he couldn't raise his voice above a whisper. "Saving your magical ass."

Strange's lips twitched. He then looked downward towards his hands.

"Don't move them," he warned.

He didn't, and he stopped trying to look at them for now. Tony only spared them a quick glance; even in the half-light, he could see they were bloodied and swollen. He'd see what he could do once the kid was back.

Strange closed his eyes, but he didn't appear to be drifting off again; he was too tense. "How'd you get here?" he mumbled.

"Hitched a ride before the ship could leave the atmosphere. Unfortunately Squidward had a lot of buddies here in Bikini Bottom that I had to take care of. Delayed me. I did find your cape along the way, though. It's rather aggressive, which was great for me and not so great for the aliens."

"Cloak," Strange mumbled.

"What?"

"It's a cloak. Not a cape." He sounded awful, but Tony needed for him to stay awake and recover; they needed to figure out what to do, and whether they got along or not, the wizard had managed to keep the Time Stone away from Squidward despite what he was put through. A lot of people couldn't do that.

So time to distract him. "What's the difference?" he asked. "Thought they were the same thing."

"Depends," he rasped, opening his eyes again. They appeared rather glassy. "Cloaks're usually wider… 'n longer. Sometimes said inter...changeably." He paused to swallow and winced, but pressed on. "But it's called the… Cloak of Levitation."

"Appropriate name," Tony replied. "Rather aggressive, as I said. It strangled about half a dozen aliens on our way to you."

Strange grimaced again. "It can be… overzealous… about my… well-being." He shut his eyes once more, pressed his lips together, then looked up at Stark. "I think… some of the needles broke off. Broke off…" He trailed off and looked downward, and Tony nodded quickly in understanding. "I'll need… I'll need your help. Getting them out."

"Yeah, 'course," Tony said. "I'm just waiting for Underroos to come back."

His brow furrowed in confusion. "What?"

"He'll be here soon," he replied, not bothering to say further. Strange didn't say anything in return and he had closed his eyes again. Tony frowned; he needed him to stay awake.

So he fell back to their argument on Earth. "I _told you_ to leave," he reminded him. "To hide the Stone."

Strange's lips down-turned, which meant he was awake enough to be agitated; good. "You saw what he did… to Greenwich Village. They knew… I was there. They would've… followed me elsewhere. On Earth. Better… to fight in one spot."

Tony frowned; Strange had a point, and it only added to the nagging idea already lingering in the back of his mind. "So we can't turn around."

The wizard's eyes flew open. "_What?_" he asked, and he seemed to be a good deal more alert now. Good man.

"You literally just said it, but since you were just used as a pin cushion, I'll let your poor memory slide for now," Tony replied, and the wizard frowned even more, looking more irritated than pained. That was a good change in his opinion. "I mean it: you saw what they did to New York. If we brought the Time Stone back to Earth, they'll do that wherever you land next."

"Could fight in the Sahara," he mumbled. "No people there."

Was that… _a joke?_ Tony couldn't tell. Strange _had_ winked earlier, so he didn't seem completely bereft of a sense of humor. Still, he might just be delirious with pain, so for now Tony kept serious. "Look, I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight Thanos on our turf or his but you saw what they did, what they can do. At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So it might be a better idea to take the fight to him." The more he thought about it, the more Tony was convinced this was their best option. It'd be best if the wizard agreed, but at the same time, he wasn't exactly in a position to argue.

Before Strange could reply, they were interrupted by Peter's return. "Sorry I took so long, Mr Stark! It took a while to find anything, but I did find water and even some sort of cloth towel things that I can rip into bandages if you need them. Oh, the wizard's awake! Are you okay?"

Strange just stared at him, and frankly, Tony couldn't quite blame him. Peter was sometimes exhausting on a good day, and this was very, very much not a good day. "I'll live," he rasped eventually, and that answer seemed to satisfy the kid.

"Okay, give him some water, kid," Tony said before Peter could start on again. "I'll take a look at your hands."

The cape— or cloak, whatever— helped Strange into a more upright position to drink while Tony scanned the damage on his hands. It appeared that two of the needles had broken off in his left hand, though his right hand was free of any shards. They were relatively near the surface, at least. What was more interesting was the fact that there were about a dozen steel pins holding Strange's fingers together.

That explained why Squidward focused so heavily on them. Good riddance.

During his examination he heard Peter make conversation to Strange. "I'm Peter, by the way."

"Doctor Strange," he said after he had his fill of water, which seemed to help curb the raspiness a bit.

"Oh, we're using our made up names! Uh, then I'm Spider-Man."

He could hear the disbelief in the silence that followed. Deciding to take pity on the man, Tony threw in, "No kid, that's his actual name. Doctor Stephen Strange."

"Oh! I'm sorry!" He could see the kid's eyes widen in his head just from the tone of voice. "So uh, if you're actually a doctor, then you probably know better what to do. I was just gonna wash your hands off."

Tony formed a small pair of tweezers with the nanites and, after a moment, removed the gauntlet from his right hand for more precision.

"Usually with punctures this deep you'd go to the ER," Strange answered. "Running water would be better, too... if you can't get to the ER. But don't worry about me." He paused as Peter offered him another drink, then explained further, "I can expend some energy to heal them."

What? If that's the case, why didn't he do that to his broken hands the first time?

Tony then realized, by the stares both Peter and Strange were giving him, that he had actually said that comment aloud. _Oops._

Surprisingly, Strange answered his rather indelicate question. "I didn't know magic was an option at the time. By the time I did, it was too late. I can only help with new injuries, not old ones, and I can only heal if I have the energy to do so."

He cleared his throat. "Right. Well, I'm going to remove the two splinters remaining in your hands so you can do your magic thing, then." Mindful of injuries both old and new, Tony held his hand down while he removed the needle shards from his left hand. Strange inhaled sharply through his nose, but otherwise didn't react to their extraction, which really painted a clearer picture in Tony's mind at his pain tolerance— and just how bad Squidward's needles really were.

Probably magic. Fucking magic.

Tony removed the last one and let out his own exhale. "Okay, done." He looked around at their surroundings. "I think we're about a five minute walk from the main ship deck. Can you make that walk?"

Before Strange could answer, the cloak, still cradling his entire body including his head, lifted him in a reclined position. "I don't think I'm being given a choice here," he replied dryly. "Which is fine; I'll work on repairing myself so I might be of some use in the next fight, whether it's on Earth or Titan."

Titan. Sounded ominous. "S'pose that's where the auto-pilot's taking us," he commented more than questioned.

"So I was told," he answered, then closed his eyes.

Tony left him to it. Once they were on the main deck, he'd make sure that Titan was their destination. And he was sure they'd need the wizard in peak condition for the battle to come.

**Author's Note:**

> You can catch more of my nonsense [over on tumblr](https://aelaer.tumblr.com).


End file.
